1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a manually input data display system, and a coordinate data input device and a display device for use in the manually input data display system.
2. Description of Related Art
FIG. 36 shows a conventional manually input data display system. For example, a presentation apparatus, including a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as the xe2x80x9cPCxe2x80x9d) 1 and a display device 2 connected to each other, is provided in each of conference rooms. The PCs 1 in each of the conference rooms may conduct communications therebetween through, for example, a telephone line. The display device 2 may include, for example, a projector 3, and a display board 4 provided with a pressure-sensitive touch sensor.
When a conference is held using remotely located conference rooms, the PC 1 is operated in any of the conference rooms, so as to throw an image of data, which is stored in the PC 1 or an external memory, onto the display board 4, using the projector 3. The same data is transmitted to the PCs 1 provided in other conference rooms, through the telephone line, so that the same contents may be displayed on the display board 4 in every room. With the above-described structures, participants in each of the conference rooms can hold a meeting while seeing the display board 4, with the same contents presented in each room.
For example, when a participant writes a character or a graphic on a surface of the display board 4, using a writing implement 5 to provide some additional information to the contents currently presented on the display board 4, a pressure applied during writing is sensed by the pressure-sensitive touch sensor, thereby obtaining coordinate data for the input. The coordinate data is transmitted to the PC 1. Also, the coordinate data is transmitted to other PCs 1 provided in the conference rooms, through the telephone line.
In the above-described conventional presentation apparatus, the image of the characters/graphics is thrown by the projector 3 onto the display board 4 on which the characters/graphics may be written. When the additional information is written on the display board 4 where the image of the characters/graphics has already been displayed thereon, it becomes difficult to recognize the contents on the display board 4. In addition, when the image of the characters/graphics added to the display board 4 of a different conference room is overlaid on the image of the characters/graphics thrown by the projector 3 onto the display board 4 of a conference room, it is difficult to understand which contents are written by whom or in which rooms.
Accordingly, one exemplary aspect of the invention is to provide a manually input data display system, and a coordinate data input device and a display device for use in the manually input data display system, in which data, such as text and graphics manually input by a user, is displayed in an easy-to-see arrangement.
A manually input data display system of the invention may include a plurality of coordinate data input devices and at least one display device. Each of the coordinate data input devices may include a coordinate data acquisition unit that obtains images manually input from the coordinate data input devices as coordinate data, a coordinate controller that controls processing of the coordinate data obtained by the coordinate data acquisition unit, and a transmitter that transmits the coordinate data. The display device may include a receiver that receives the coordinate data transmitted from the plurality of the coordinate data input devices, a display controller that controls processing of the coordinate data received through the receiver, and a display unit that displays the manually input images based on the coordinate data. The display controller of the display device may divide a display area of the display unit into a plurality of individual display areas corresponding to the plurality of coordinate data input devices, and a selective display area that selectively displays the images displayed in the individual display areas.
In the manually input data display system, when a user sees the display unit, the user may easily understand from which coordinate data input device (by which participants) contents displayed in each of the individual display areas are input. Among the contents displayed in the individual display areas, a particular content may be selected and displayed in the selective display area. With the above-described structure, main points in a conference may be easily organized.
The coordinate controller of each of the coordinate data input devices may transmit the coordinate data obtained by the coordinate data acquisition unit, with an identification information of each of the coordinate data input devices attached to the coordinate data. The display controller of the display device may identify the identification information attached to the coordinate data received through the receiver, and display the images input in each of the coordinate data input devices on the corresponding individual display areas, based on the coordinate data. When it is determined that the images displayed in the individual display areas satisfy a predetermined condition, the display controller of the display device may shift the images displayed in the individual display areas to the selective display area.
The display controller of the display device may display the images in the individual display areas corresponding to the coordinate data input devices, by identifying the identification information attached to the coordinate data. When the predetermined condition is satisfied, the display controller of the display device may shift the images displayed in the individual display areas to the selective display area, so that the images are displayed in the selective display area
The display controller of the display device may determine, based on the identification information attached to the coordinate data, whether the images corresponding to the coordinate data are to be displayed in the display unit.
When a conference or meeting is held between people in remotely located conference rooms, the display device provided in each of the conference rooms may display the images input by the participants in the other rooms. Such structures may be employed when the need to display the images input on one of the coordinate data input devices in a room, on the display device in the same room, is relatively low. Thus, a display area of the display device may be effectively used.
Each of the coordinate data input devices may further include a designation unit that designates the images displayed in any of the individual display areas. When the display controller of the display device receives data designating the images selected by the designation unit from any of the coordinate data input devices, through the receiver, the display controller of the display device determines that the designated images displayed in the individual display areas satisfy the predetermined condition.
When the user performs a designation operation using the designation unit, the images displayed in the individual display areas may be shifted to the selective display area, while reflecting the user""s intentions.
Each of the coordinate data input devices may further include a designation unit that designates the images displayed in any of the individual display areas. When the display controller of the display device receives data designating the images selected by the designation unit of at least one of the coordinate data input devices, through the receiver, the display controller determines that the images displayed in one of the individual display areas, which is designated the most important, satisfies the predetermined condition.
When the users designate, on the designation unit, the images displayed in the individual display areas that the users think are to be selected, the images displayed on one of the individual display areas, which obtains the largest number of designations, may be shifted to the selective display area. Thus, the images may be shifted to and displayed in the selective display area, based on the intentions of the users.
Each of the coordinate data input devices may further include a temporary storage device that temporarily stores the coordinate data obtained by the coordinate acquisition unit, and an erasing unit that performs an erasing operation to erase the coordinate data stored in the temporary storage device. The coordinate controller of each of the coordinate input devices may transmit the coordinate data stored in the temporary storage device to the display device, through the transmitter, when the images manually input by the user are entirely erased by the erasing unit.
When the images manually input by the users from the coordinate data input devices are entirely erased, the coordinate data for the images is automatically transmitted to the display device. With the structures, the users do not have to intentionally perform any operations to transmit the coordinate data.
In the manually input data display system of the invention, when the images displayed in the individual display areas are selectively shifted to the selective display area, the display controller of the display device may display the identification information of the coordinate input devices corresponding to the individual display areas, together with the images to be shifted to the selective display area.
The display controller of the display device may display the identification information of the coordinate data input devices corresponding to the individual display areas, together with the images to be shifted to the selective display area, when the images displayed in the individual display areas are selectively shifted to the selective display area. Consequently, the user may easily understand in which coordinate data input devices the images shifted to and displayed in the selective display area are originally input.
Each of the coordinate data input devices may further include an information input unit that inputs displayable information by an operation of the user. The coordinate controller of each of the coordinate data input devices may add the displayable information input by the information input unit, to the identification information.
The coordinate controller of each of the coordinate data input devices may add the displayable information input by the information input unit, to the identification information. For example, when the user inputs the name thereof as the displayable information, the name may be displayed together with the images to be shifted to and displayed in the selective display area. Therefore, it may be easily understood by whom the images displayed in the selective display area are input.
When the images displayed in the individual display areas are selectively shifted to the selective display area, the display controller of the display device may display serial numbers together with the images to be shifted to the selective display area.
The display controller of the display device may attach the serial numbers to the images when the images displayed in the individual display areas are shifted to and displayed in the selective display area. Therefore, for example, the user may designate one of the serial numbers attached to the images displayed in the selective display area.
Each of the coordinate data input devices may further include a heading designation unit that designates a heading for the images to be displayed in the selective display area. As the display controller of the display device receives data designating the heading designated by the heading designation unit, through the receiver, the display controller may display the heading together with the images when the images displayed in the individual display areas are selectively shifted to the selective display area.
When the images displayed in the individual display areas are shifted to the selective display area, the display controller of the display device may display designated headings or titles, such as xe2x80x9cideaxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cproposalxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cproblemxe2x80x9d, and xe2x80x9csolutionxe2x80x9d, as the data designating the heading is received from the heading designation unit.
The display controller of the display device may predetermine a number of the individual display areas according to a number of the coordinate data input devices connected to the transmitter.
The display controller of the display device may predetermine the number of the individual display areas according to the number of the coordinate data input devices that are connected to the transmitter. Therefore, the individual display areas may be provided in the display unit for all of the coordinate data input devices that will transmit the data to the display device.
The display controller of the display device may determine a number of the individual display areas according to a number of the coordinate data input devices that actually transmit the coordinate data among the coordinate data input devices connected to the transmitter.
Since the display controller of the display device determines the number of the individual display areas according to the number of the coordinate data input devices that actually transmit the coordinate data among the coordinate data input devices connected to the transmitter, the display area of the display unit may be effectively used.
In the manually input data display system of the invention, the display controller of the display device may stack the individual display areas in the display unit, to overlap the individual display areas. One of the individual display areas corresponding to one of the coordinate data input device that most recently transmits the coordinate data is placed on the top.
When a relatively large number of the coordinate data input device are used and the relatively large number of individual display areas need to be provided in the display unit, the individual display areas may be provided in overlapping windows. The images based on the coordinate data that is most recently transmitted from one of the coordinate data input devices, may be displayed on the top of the corresponding individual display areas. Therefore, the images based on the coordinate data that is most recently input in one of the coordinate data input devices may be viewed.
According to another exemplary aspect of the invention, a manually input data display system of the invention may include a plurality of coordinate data input devices and at least one display device. Each of the coordinate data input devices may include a coordinate data acquisition unit that obtains images manually input from the coordinate data input device as coordinate data, a coordinate controller that controls processing of the coordinate data obtained by the coordinate data acquisition unit, and a transmitter that transmits the coordinate data. The display device may include a receiver that receives the coordinate data transmitted from the plurality of the coordinate data input devices, a display controller that controls processing of the coordinate data received through the receiver, and a display unit that displays the manually input images based on the coordinate data. The coordinate controller of each of the coordinate data input devices transmits the coordinate data obtained by the coordinate data acquisition unit by attaching an identification information of each of the coordinate data input devices to the coordinate data. The display controller of the display device displays the images based on the coordinate data received through the receiver and the identification information attached to the coordinate data in the display unit.
In the manually input data display system, for example, when one of participants of a conference manually inputs characters/graphics in the coordinate data input device, the coordinate data for characters/graphics is transmitted to the display unit together with the identification information of the coordinate data input device. The characters/graphics input in the coordinate data input device may be displayed in the display unit, together with the identification information of the coordinate data input device. The participants may easily understand who inputs the contents displayed in the display unit or from which coordinate data input devices the contents are input, as the participants see the identification information displayed in the display unit. Even when the conference is held between people in remotely located rooms, the manually input data display system of the invention develops the mutual understanding between the participants.
The display controller of the display device may determine, based on the ID information, from which coordinate data input device the coordinate data is transmitted. With the structure, the display area in the display device may be divided according to the coordinate data input devices. Thus, the display in the display device may preferably be organized in an easy-to-see manner for users.
The display device may further include a storage unit that stores the coordinate data in association with the identification information of one of the plurality of the coordinate data input devices from which the coordinate data was transmitted. The display controller of the display device stores in the storage unit the coordinate data in association with the identification information, reads the identification information in association with the coordinate data stored in the storage unit to divide a display area of the display unit into a plurality of areas, and displays the images input from the coordinate data input devices simultaneously in each of the divided areas of the display unit.
The display controller of the display device may further include an estimation unit that estimates whether the images corresponding to the coordinate data received through the receiver, are input approximately at a same time from the coordinate data input devices, and simultaneously displays the images estimated to be input approximately at the same time from the coordinate data input devices, based on a result of estimation by the estimation unit.
The coordinate controller of each of the coordinate input devices may transmit the coordinate data obtained by the coordinate data acquisition unit by attaching input time data for the images to the coordinate data. The display controller of the display device may store, in the storage unit, the coordinate data attaching the input time data thereto and received through the receiver, in association with the input time data. The estimation unit may estimate an input time of the images corresponding to the coordinate data by reading the input time data in association with the coordinate data stored in the storage unit.
The estimation unit may estimate, based on an amount of change in at least one of X coordinate and Y coordinate of the coordinate data transmitted from each of the coordinate data input devices, the input time of the images corresponding to the coordinate data.
The display controller of the display device sequentially may display the images estimated to be input approximately at the same time, in each of the areas of the display unit, every time a display request is made.
The display controller of the display device may divide the display area of the display unit, according to variations of the identification information transmitted from each of the coordinate data input devices.